


Chrysalis, Emergence

by coinin



Series: Tumblr Prompts [4]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Developing Relationship, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-14
Updated: 2020-01-14
Packaged: 2021-02-25 13:42:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22257148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coinin/pseuds/coinin
Summary: Dating Lúcio, fellow Overwatch member, is easy. Figuring out how to date Lúcio, world renowned DJ and freedom fighter, takes a little more work from both of them.
Relationships: Lúcio Correia dos Santos/Genji Shimada
Series: Tumblr Prompts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1099776
Comments: 7
Kudos: 67





	Chrysalis, Emergence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bloomingcnidarians](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloomingcnidarians/gifts).



> Long, long ago, on a Tumblr far, far away, Blooming requested Gencio with a public kiss from the kiss prompt meme. After several false starts, I have finally delivered. Many thanks to Robo for the beta and the encouragement!

Prompt: Gencio, public kiss

Their first kiss is - well, not a surprise, really. It’s past three AM, what had started as a team movie night having slowly devolved into watching stupid shit off social media until finally even Hana had left for bed. Now it’s just Genji and Lúcio, slumping ever closer to each other on the too-soft couch. Lúcio’s giggling helplessly at a video of tiny puppies adorably failing to navigate a back yard, listing sideways until he collapses into Genji’s lap. 

Genji looks down at him, more amused by Lúcio’s mirth than by the puppy faceplanting into a patch of dandelions. 

“Hello,” he says gravely, not trying too hard to hide his smile. 

“Hey,” Lúcio replies with a blinding grin, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. “Wow, this is kind of uncomfortable, your thighs are really hard.”

“They are mostly metal,” Genji says. Genji’s not offended: it’s Lúcio, and Genji knows he doesn’t mean anything by it, especially not with the way he’s running one hand up and down along Genji’s thigh. It seems absent minded, like Lúcio isn’t entirely aware of what he’s doing, and Genji is torn between the guilty desire to continue enjoying the feeling of Lúcio’s hands on him and the feeling that he should probably say something before the situation becomes too embarrassing to salvage. 

His quandary is solved for him when Lúcio squeezes just above Genji’s knee - it’s mostly synthetic muscle, but there are a few remaining organic nerves underneath, and they aggressively inform Genji that he’s still ticklish. He lets out an undignified yelp, thrashing so hard that he nearly dumps Lúcio onto the floor. Lúcio clutches at Genji, and by the time Genji has caught his breath and Lúcio is no longer in danger of falling, they’re face to face, Lúcio’s fingers digging into Genji’s bicep. 

“Hey,” Lúcio says, breathless. “I’m gonna kiss you, yeah?”

“Cool,” Genji replies stupidly. His younger self would be so disappointed in him. 

Lúcio tugs Genji down, kissing him softly. Genji sighs into the kiss, lifting Lúcio up until Genji no longer has to fold nearly in half to kiss him. 

“Yeah,” Lúcio murmurs, breath warm across Genji’s lips. He wriggles around distractingly in Genji’s lap, their noses bumping as they resettle with Lúcio straddling Genji. The second kiss is just as soft, the third less so, and Genji has just gotten his hands up under Lúcio’s tank top when the coffee machine in the next room switches into its automatic brewing cycle. 

They both jerk back like startled teenagers. 

“Coffee maker,” Genji says after a second, as his brain starts working again. 

Lúcio stares wide eyed at him for a long moment, then starts laughing again. 

“Oh my _god_ ,” he wheezes, “I almost had a heart attack!”

***

Dating Lúcio is great. He was already easy to exist around - something Genji had appreciated even before they started dating, and which is only improved by Genji now having tacit permission to touch Lúcio whenever he wants.

Well.

Almost whenever.

There's that whole "world famous media darling dating a member of an infamous former global peacekeeping force" thing. Genji had never been a poster child of Overwatch like Jack or Lena or Angela, but he was uniquely recognizable and had endured his own fair share of fame. There'd been at least two different action figures made of him, both of which McCree had immediately bought for the sole purpose of embarrassing Genji.

"I need to keep this under wraps," Lúcio says the first time he brings it up. He sounds stressed, like he's been thinking too much about this and twisting himself up in knots. "I'm not ashamed of you or anything but-"

"I get it," Genji says.

The look Lúcio gives him speaks volumes. Deeply skeptical volumes.

"When they transferred me to Overwatch I had to sit through a six hour seminar on public relations, social media, and maintaining a professional image as an Overwatch member," Genji says. "Not that I had any social media accounts at that point, but you get the idea."

"Shit, I keep forgetting you had like, actual media training," Lúcio replies with a strained little laugh. 

"Truly, I contain multitudes," Genji intones pompously. This time he gets a real laugh out of Lúcio.

"It sucks though," Lúcio continues, sobering up. "Like, I want to show you off - look at my boyfriend, isn't he hot? - but the minute they get their claws in you they'll rip you apart."

Genji doesn't know if Lúcio's referring to his fans or the media or both, but it doesn't really matter. It does suck, there's not much he can do about that, but he can reach out and pull Lúcio closer, until they're cuddled up together on the couch. He loves being Lúcio's boyfriend, but he's not quite sure he's ready to be international superstar and freedom fighter Lúcio Correia dos Santos' boyfriend just yet.

"Who are you dating this week?" Genji asks after a few minutes.

"Ugh. Cheating on Hana with some supermodel from Oasis."

"Hmm. Good to know my competition."

Lúcio snorts and shoves at Genji's face. Genji retaliates, and what starts as a shoving match soon devolves into kissing, and ends with a very different sort of shoving.

***

Lúcio is big in Japan. He's big everywhere, of course (except in height, as Genji frequently likes to remind him) but his Japanese fans are absolutely rabid for him. Genji knew this in theory, but seeing it up close is a whole new, slightly alarming, experience.

Officially, Genji is joining Lúcio's entourage as a bodyguard and assistant interpreter. Lúcio's Japanese is decent, perfectly suitable for shouting to his fans mid-concert and exchanging a few words while taking selfies, but it's still easier for everyone to have a translator or two on staff. Unofficially, of course, he's there as Lúcio's boyfriend - and bodyguard, because who would Genji be if he didn't put his particular skills to work protecting those he loves? Lúcio's crew, the ones closest to him, know what's going on, but Lúcio and Genji have still been discrete. It's an odd change from the Overwatch headquarters, where they'd never bothered to hide. Genji has spent the days overthinking every interaction with Lúcio and the nights clinging to him to reassure himself this is real, and from the way Lúcio clutches Genji back, he must be feeling something similar.

But the tour is finished now, a long loop from Tokyo down to Okinawa, then back up to Tokyo and north to Kobe and Aomori. The last concert is done, the talkshow appearances over, and now they have a few days of vacation in which to enjoy the snow before they head back to the Mediterranean.

"We're going ice skating!" Lúcio announces, barging into the hotel room brandishing a flyer in one hand and bags from the local bakery and convenience stores in the other. 

"What?" Genji asks, pausing in toweling off his hair to take the flyer. Lúcio practically skips past him to set the bags on the table.

"Check it out," Lúcio says as he starts laying out their late breakfast. It's almost 12:30, and Genji is ravenous.

The flyer is covered in snowflakes and dancing snowmen on ice skates, and advertises an outdoor ice rink downtown. _Come skate under the stars!!!_ , it announces in an obnoxiously cute, bubbly font. There's a snow couple kissing under mistletoe, the snow man leaning in and the snow woman blushing. 

"There's going to be a lot of couples," Genji says, just in case Lúcio hadn't noticed the decidedly romantic cast to the flyer.

"Duh," Lúcio replies. "I got katsu and egg salad sandwiches, wanna split?"

Genji's stomach growls.

"I hope you got more than one of each," he says, around an enormous bite of egg salad sandwich.

"You're so gross," Lúcio says fondly, nose wrinkling. "And of course I did, there's sausage rolls, those egg and bacon things the bakery does, and a shit ton of croissants because I was really hungry."

Between the two of them they polish off everything except for one lonely chocolate croissant. Then Lúcio insists on licking the pastry crumbs off Genji's fingers, and they get sidetracked for a while. Lúcio's tongue on Genji's fingers doesn't register as more than faint pressure, but the sight of it - soft and pink against the polished alloy - is more than enough to get Genji going.

By the time they make it to the the ice rink, it's 3:30 and already almost twilight, the midwinter sun hanging low over the horizon. The ice rink is a beacon of fairy lights, glittery snowflakes hanging from the bare branches of the surrounding trees, light-up snowmen and reindeer surrounding the rink like an encroaching army of holiday cheer. There's holiday pop music being piped in, and a cafe selling hot cocoa, roast chestnuts, and sweet potatoes.There are in fact couples everywhere, holding hands, arms wrapped around each others' waists, huddled nose to nose. Lúcio reaches over and gives Genji's hand a brief squeeze before letting go, and Genji feels his heart clench. He doesn't mind the discretion their relationship requires, except at times like this.

But Lúcio is grinning with delight, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he looks around, and he looks so _happy_ Genji can't find it in himself to be grumpy. One of the qualities Genji most admires in Lúcio is his ability to retain a certain childlike wonder at the world - Lúcio has seen some of the worst humanity has to offer, grew up in poverty and fought for everything he has; has seen death and loss and been elbow deep in blood, but he still smiles like a kid at the sight of Christmas decorations. There's a deep fondness bubbling up in Genji's chest, bright and effervescent like champagne and fairy lights, and he's pretty sure he's stupidly in love with Lúcio. Everything about him makes Genji smile, from the furry fox ears on Lúcio's hat to the way he's bouncing a little on the balls of his feet, and especially the way he grabs Genji's hand and drags him over to the skate rental shack, propriety forgotten. Genji almost asks why Lúcio isn't just using his hard light skates, before he realizes that would be like putting up a giant blinking neon sign advertising Lúcio's identity.

The place has skates designed for Omnics that clamp onto Genji's feet. It's a lot faster than lacing up skates, especially since Lúcio's picky and returns three pairs of skates before he finds some that are acceptable. Genji sits back and enjoys the moment. As soon as they both have skates, Lúcio drags Genji toward the ice, both of them clomping along, and Genji - Genji should probably warn Lúcio that he hasn't skated in a very long time, now that he thinks about it.

"I went to one of these outdoor rinks in high school," Genji says as they join the slow moving crowd around the rink. "I think that's the last time I skated."

"It's muscle memory, man," Lúcio replies. "You got this!"

Genji grimaces - he would be more confident if he still _had_ those muscles, but they're all synthetic now.

They step onto the ice, Lúcio gliding easily away from the gate. Genji tries to remember how this works - set your feet and push, he remembers that much - 

Maybe it's a good thing he's mostly carbon fiber and titanium these days, Genji thinks absently as he falls flat on his ass. Falling hurts less than it used to. 

Lúcio's obviously trying to smother a laugh as he skates back to Genji's side.

"You okay?" He asks as he effortlessly hauls Genji to his feet.

"Yes," Genji replies with a sigh. "Only my pride is bruised."

"Awww, you want me to kiss that better?" Lúcio asks, and makes an exaggerated kissy face.

"Maybe later."

They make several slow circuits of the rink, Lúcio skating backwards and alternately holding Genji's hands to steady him and laughing at Genji as he gracelessly falls over, before Genji decides he's had enough of failure for one evening and insists that Lúcio skate by himself for a while. Genji hobbles off the ice, settling down on a nearby bench to watch Lúcio and take off his skates.

Lúcio takes off with all the grace Genji lacks on ice, weaving effortlessly between skaters like a shark through schools of fish, grinning as he goes. He spends ten or fifteen minutes as part of a pickup hockey game with a bunch of kids at center ice, ending when he picks up a giggling child and skates to the goal while kicking the puck along with his skate blades. Lúcio sets the child down in front of the goal, and the child executes a very wobbly shot that ends with them falling gently over backwards. The goalie - very nearly smaller than their own pads - doesn’t so much block the shot as flop bodily onto the puck. A moment later Lúcio is helping both skaters to their feet and giving out victory high fives to everyone. 

Genji watches it all with a smile he’s absolutely incapable of hiding. He probably looks like an utter idiot, but he doesn’t care. Lúcio’s just so _cute_.

Lúcio skates lazily back toward Genji, still glowing with high spirits, and slides to a stop in a spray of ice. He flops his arms over the boards and makes grabby hands at Genji. Genji gets up, settles his hands on the boards on either side of Lúcio’s elbows, leaning over him. The skates give Lúcio a few extra centimeters, but Genji’s still easily taller.

“Hey,” Lúcio says, low and warm. 

“You looked like you were having fun,” Genji replies. Lúcio looks so handsome like this, when he’s obviously, uncomplicatedly happy, and Genji wants to kiss him. 

"Oh yeah," Lúcio says, distracted like he's thinking about something else. There's a long pause in which they smile at each other, Genji dimly aware that it's probably sickeningly sappy but he's enjoying himself too much to care, and then- "Can I kiss you?" Lúcio asks.

"Yes," Genji replies immediately, and then thinks for a second instead of responding on instinct and adds, "are you sure?" 

Lúcio shrugs.

"I dunno, man," he murmurs as he gently tugs Genji down by the front of his jacket. "I just want to."

Lúcio's lips are chilled but his breath is warm, both of them smiling into the kiss. Their cold noses bump, and Lúcio lets out the faintest breath of laughter before Genji leans in to kiss it away.

Excited screaming breaks out nearby, and they jerk back like guilty teenagers. Genji scans the area, breathing through the adrenaline spike as he assesses the threat level-

"Oh," Lúcio says, starting to giggle. "That's sweet. Shit, I thought-" he doesn't finish the thought, but he doesn't need to.

Some ten meters away there's a group of cheering, clapping people gathered in a loose circle around two women, one of who is awkwardly kneeling on the ice and holding something out to the other one, who has her hands over her face. As Genji and Lúcio watch, the standing woman pulls her new fiancée to her feet and they kiss.

Genji feels antsy in the wake of their scare, too alert, the need to do _something_ making him twitchy.

“You want some cocoa?” he asks, more out of a need to move than any desire for the drink. Lúcio likes it, but milk upsets Genji’s stomach, and moreso since his cybernetic augmentation.

“Okay,” Lúcio replies with a look like he knows why Genji’s offering. “I’ll meet you over there? I wanna do a few more laps.”

Genji nods and Lúcio pushes away from the wall, skirting the proposal crowd and picking up speed.

In a welcome discovery, the refreshment stand sells spiced apple cider in addition to cocoa - _100% Aomori Apples!_ , a sign announces, complete with a smiling apple that looks far too happy about being eaten. Genji collects their drinks and settles in to wait in the cafe area by the rink. Leafless trees stretch overhead, trunks and branches wrapped in twinkling lights, a canopy of earthbound stars.

Lúcio arrives in a clattering thump of skates, ruddy-cheeked and smiling from cold and exertion, breath coming in puffs of white as he drops into the seat next to Genji and gratefully accepts his cocoa. His weight against Genji’s side is comfortingly familiar from days and nights spent in each other’s company around the Watchpoint. Here it’s different, an old friend remade in a new context, and yet no less comforting for the change.

“This was nice,” Lúcio says, nudging their shoulders together. “We should do it again sometime.”

Genji hums, extricating the arm trapped between them so he can drape it around Lúcio’s shoulders.

“Yes,” he says, pulling Lúcio closer. “I would like that.”


End file.
